CD of the Day, 10/15/08: Greg Pope-Popmonster

One of the more underrated power pop bands of the last several years has been Edmund's Crown, whose Regrets of a Company Man was one of my favorite releases of 2006. The Tennessee band has been one of the leaders of "southern power pop", along with artists like The Luxury Liners (whose frontman David Dewese has ironically just released a solo disc of his own), The Rewinds and Bill Lloyd. The man behind the Crown is Greg Pope, and he's out with his solo debut that not only continues the Edmund's Crown sound but expands upon it (and which sports pretty cool album art to boot). Popmonster is a true solo debut as well, with Pope writing, singing and playing all the instruments on each track.

Freed to do his own thing, Pope lets loose a total of 16 tracks here but there really isn't any filler. Opener "Sky Burn Down" lets you know you're not in Kansas (or at least Tennessee) any more as he revs up a Robert Pollard-style rocker in both sound and length (2:08). "I Got a Life" is another infectious barnburner which recalls both Matthew Sweet and The Who in places, while "Lost My Friend" and "Playing Nashville" travel in more familiar Edmund's Crown territory. "The Only Thing I've Got" also clocks in around 2 minutes, and has a definite Alex-Chilton-by-way-of-Paul-Westerberg vibe. Other standouts include the aching Jon Brionesque pop of "Only One You", the jangly "Footpath", the bright Americana-influenced "Little Things", and "Reason With You", another track that would have fit on nicely on Regrets of a Company Man.

A real tour-de-force and with Halloween approaching, this Popmonster will be scaring its way up my year-end list.

CD Baby | MySpace

CD of the Day, 7/11/06: Edmund's Crown-Regrets of a Company Man

Edmund's Crown is back. The self-styled purveyors of "southern power pop", who made a splash in the genre with 2003's Collected, have just released Regrets of a Company Man. With its conference room table cover and tracks like "Company Man" and "Stuck in an Office", you might be forgiven if you thought Regrets was going to be an album of Dilbert-rock. But it's more than that, much more.

In fact, leadoff track "Keep Your Feet on the Ground" is one of the brighter openings to an album I've heard this year, and sounds more like a romp through the park on a sunny day than a trip to the water cooler, despite the admonition of the title, and "Damsel" follows with a blast of Southern-fried Kinks. The aforementioned "Company Man" is next, a gorgeous (dare I say power?) ballad about a rocker who trades in the leather and jeans for a shirt and tie, undoubtedly a fate of many we review on this site who are brilliant artists but unappreciated by the marketplace. And while it may be the same narrator in the next track, "Stuck in an Office", the fast-paced power pop of the tune is his way of saying his spirit will not be crushed. Meanwhile, "Nashville Star" is the antithesis of "Company Man": the singer here quits his day job to take his guitar to Nashville in hope of stardom.

Other standouts include "Not That It Matters", a near-perfect slice of jangle pop that details a relationship in its post-breakup phase; "Keith Richards" in which the singer presents his case that "Keith Richards is still God" to an Eric Clapton partisan; and "Eight Years Ago", another outstanding mid-tempo jangler.

Here are some mp3s for your listening pleasure:

Feet on the Ground
Damsel
Company Man
Keith Richards

The disc is available at CD Baby, 18 tracks in all including five bonus demos of additional songs that showcase the band's rocking side, for the bargain price of $10. If you'd prefer to stream the four songs available for download, they're at their myspace page. Rocking but not overbearing, catchy but not saccharine, and literate but not pretentious, Regrets of a Company Man is a high quality power pop disc that will undoubtedly contend for my year-end top 20.